Montgomery County inmate convicted of child pornography sentenced to prison

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — A Montgomery County man who police say distributed images and videos of sexual acts involving young children has been sentenced to prison.

John Mulgrew, 26, of Pennsburg will spend the next three to 23 months behind bars, a judge ruled this week.

He was initially charged with 175 counts of possession of child pornography, but pleaded guilty to only one count.

Mulgrew, who worked as a sales representative at Bergey's car dealership in Souderton, has been free on $200,000 bail since his arrest in December 2022.

The investigation began on May 29, 2022 with a cyber tip from the social media app Kik via the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding video files containing suspected child pornography.

An investigation revealed that Mulgrew uploaded 42 videos containing pornographic depictions of prepubescent girls to Kik, prosecutors said.

Police said they traced the IP address used to log into the Kik account to Mulgrew's residence in Pennsburg.

In August, detectives executed a search warrant for the home and seized Mulgrew's cellphone. According to prosecutors, forensic experts found it contained numerous similar child pornography videos.

The case was investigated by members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which consists of law enforcement officers specially trained to protect children from online predators.